Whenever we walk up the hill towards Dobcross we always stop to admire a particularly well kept garden. Yesterday as I walked past I greeted the lady gardener who invited me in to admire a particularly fine large bloom.
“It’s a pity it’s too early for the Saddleworth in Bloom judges,” she commented, “it’ll be well past it’s best by then”. I hadn’t realised when I’ve admired her sunflowers and other successful cultivations that it was all so competitive.
Elsewhere in our area the bits of beauty are often more accidental, like the fungus growing on this tree.
I have sometimes reflected on how quickly we get used to certain types of weather: the rain that usually falls on a regular basis around here (but which unusually hasn’t been falling quite so regularly lately), the recent spell of hot and sunny weather, the current run of dull but still warm weather with rain occasionally falling overnight. Today I read that on a greater scale we all quickly grow accustomed to weather change and, more importantly, climate change:
“Surveys show that the increasing number of extreme climate events, including floods, wildfires and hurricanes, has not raised awareness of threats posed by climate change. Instead, people change their idea of what they see as normal. This so-called “boiling frog effect” makes gradual change difficult to spot.”
Here’s a link to a short article about it.
Most of us don’t have the presidential power of Mr Trump to sign “big beautiful bills” in opposition to clean energy production such wind farms and solar farms. According to this article Mr Trump opposes such initiatives on the aesthetic grounds: “I don’t want windmills destroying our place. I don’t want these solar things where they go for miles and they cover up half a mountain and they’re ugly as hell.” And he’s not only talking about the USA; he tried to oppose wind farms near his golf courses in Scotland: “They should get rid of the windmills and bring back the oil. The windmills are really detrimental to the beauty of Scotland and every other place they go up.”
The rest of us just have to keep on recycling and trying to do our bit to help preserve the planet.
It’s amazing how easily people are convinced of the oddest notions. The conspiracy theorists, for example, claim that sunscreen causes cancer, rather than preventing it. Although there is no robust evidence to support this (and there is a mountain of clinical data showing the opposite), young people are reportedly the most susceptible to the propaganda. A recent survey by a teen beauty brand (yes, there are specialist ‘teen’ beauty products!) found that 60% of teenage girls say they’ve been sunburnt on their face, but only 27% wear sunscreen daily. And boys are even less likely to wear SPF.
That’s enough gloomy stuff for today.
On a more positive note, our women’s football team is doing really well and faces Spain in the cup final. We’ll see how that goes.
And Ireland has been getting excited about Ben Healy being the first Irish cyclist in 38 years to wear the yellow jersey in the Tour de France. He didn’t wear it for long but he’s still up there in the top ten of this year’s Tour.
The commentators were equally excited about the success of a British cyclist. Listening to Ben Healy speak, I didn’t hear much of an Irish accent so I decided to do a little research.
It turns out he was born and raised in Wordsley, Dudley, in the West Midlands of England, but his grandparents were Irish-born and moved from Ireland to London in the 1960s. And so he has Irish heritage and opted for Irish citizenship for the purposes of competitive cycling - maybe also for the ease of travel and so on that comes with still being an EU citizen!
Here’s a link to an interesting article on Ireland’s contribution to cycling and other aspects of cycling on Ireland today.
Interestingly in 1986 50, 648 secondary-school students cycled to school but by 2011 the number had fallen to 6,592! In particular, back in the late 1980s 19,000 teenage girls cycled to school but by 2011 there were only 529! Will that change with a bit of Irish success in international cycling? We shall see.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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